Network Connections for MIDI Players
Connecting a MIDI Player to the
Internet
Streaming Internet Radio that Plays your Piano
Connecting to a Home Network
Wireless Home Network Connections
Connection of a MIDI Player Without An Ethernet Port
Remote Controlling a MIDI Player
Newer MIDI Players can connect to the internet to load and purchase music from manufacturer sites, and to streaming internet radio stations that send music 24/7. Hard wired Ethernet cables to broadband routers are supported for connecting to a home network, but with the purchase of some extra hardware wireless connections can also be achieved. MIDI Players can now be controlled with a variety of hand held wireless devices through various methods.
Connecting a MIDI Player to the Internet
Your MIDI Player needs an IP address to connect to the Internet. An IP address is a unique nametag for that particular piece of hardware. Your computer processor has an IP address and so does your broadband router. Anything you connect to on the Internet also has an IP address.
Only certain models of MIDI Players have IP addresses built into their processors. They are the PianoDisc Opus 7, the QRS Pianomation II, the Yamaha Mark IV, and E3 Disklaviers and the DKC-850 Control Box that is a hardware upgrade for the Mark II, Mark IIXG and Mark III Disklaviers. There are several models of Yamaha electronic pianos that do this as well. The Ownerís Manuals have good instructions for connecting the Ethernet cables from the MIDI Players to broadband routers.
In order to connect to the internet, you need a few accessories that did not come with your MIDI Player. You need an internet connection. The actual wires that come into your house connect to a modem. The modem is connected to a router that connects to your computer. The router can be connected to hub so that several computers or other internet ready devices can use the same internet connection. Routers have two parts ñ the side that connects to your internet connection with an Ethernet cable and the side that connects to the computers in your house or your home networkñ either with Ethernet cables or wirelessly. My single piece of FIOS hardware has all these things built into one single unit including the wireless transmitter.
The following documents show various configurations for connecting MIDI Players to the internet found at: http://services.music.yamaha.com/.
Yamaha Internet Direct Connection
DKC-850 Internet
Connection Guide
(same as E3)
Mark IV Internet Connection Guide
Streaming Internet Radio that Plays your Piano
Unlike the CD or floppy drives connected to your MIDI Player, streaming music relies on third-party networks to get the music to your piano. Once connected, you can or purchase music online downloaded directly to your instrument or just listen to Streaming Internet Radio play your piano. These ìradio stationsî broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
PianoDisc
runs a free Internet server which broadcasts specially encoded piano music. The
PianoDisc iQ system decodes the MIDI and plays your piano while the audio
is routed to the speakers. Their streaming URL is:
http://pianodisc.streamguys.tv/listen.pls For more details visit
www.pianodisc.com or see the document,
iQ PianoDisc Radio
You can
use iTunes/Apple TV from a computer, or an app like ìFStreamî on an iPod
Touch/iPhone or iPad.
Yamaha
has a subscription Radio Service for Piano accessible for certain models
of their products at:
www.yamaha.com/radio/channels.htm You must
create an account online with your instrument to have access to this service.
They do offer one complimentary channel sampler that plays 30-second samples of
music played on the other channels. Refer to:
Radio Channels
You
connect to this service with the handheld controller that was supplied with
them.
QRS PianomationII will be released June, 2011 and that information will be found at www.qrsmusic.com when available.
A Home Network is a way of distributing an internet connection to all the devices in your home and letting all the devices communicate with each other. Everything connects through a hub connected to a router, or just to the router itself. Most routers today can handle both wired (Ethernet) connections and wireless connections. Many homes are wired for Ethernet with outlets in several rooms. The wires in the walls connect to a hub. The hub connects to the router. It is easy to connect an Ethernet cable from a computer or MIDI Player to the wall outlet. If the Ethernet wires are not hidden in the walls, then you run them along the floor.
For a MIDI Players already equipped with an Ethernet port (internet ready), simply connect one end of an Ethernet cable to the MIDI Player and the other end to either an Ethernet wall outlet or to a LAN (local area network) port on the router.
Wireless Home Network Connections
Sometimes it is not feasible or desirable to use wires, so wireless connections are established inside the home called a wireless home network. The router has a transmitter built into it. Each device that connects to this wireless router must also have a wireless transmitter. These transmitters connect to the Ethernet ports on the MIDI Players. Each device must also have an IP address (called network ready) to be seen on the network and so they all have Ethernet ports. Here are documents explaining how to connect a MIDI Player to a wireless home network.
Connection of a Disklavier to home network Without
and Ethernet Cable
Establishing Internet Connection with Mark IV and
Airport Express
(Granny Joanís Hitek Lady Blog) for Mac enthusiasts
E3
Disklavier
DKC-850 Internet Wireless Connection Guide
Disklavier
Mark IV Internet Wireless Connection Guide
Connecting a MIDI Player Without an Ethernet Port to a Home Network
Older MIDI Players that do not have ethernet ports are not internet ready. They cannot connect to the internet directly because they donít have IP addresses built into them. Even if you manage to coble together a hardware connection, they still cannot process streaming internet radio stations because they cannot decode the signals that play the pianos. They can, however, connect to computers on home networks via a MIDI interface.
A really unconventional way to connect to a Home network via Ethernet cable is to modify a MIDI cable. I saw this done with a Mark III. The house was wired with Ethernet cables and outlets in the walls. The office computer was in one room and the Disklavier in another. A MIDI connector was attached to the end of the Ethernet cable and connected to the MIDI In on the Disklavier; the other end (Cat 5) was connected to the Ethernet outlet in the wall next to the Disklavier. The office computer was connected to an Ethernet outlet in the wall in the office and was running Van Basco MIDI Player. Unfortunately, the pin assignments were forgotten by the time I saw this modified cable. However, there are only 5 wires, so the modified cable was done by trial and error. The following documents show the pin assignments for each type of cable.
MIDI Over Ethernet
Port is way to route MIDI over your
Ethernet network wirelessly without any cables at all using
ipMIDI
.
The website is:
http://www.nerds.de/en/ipmidi.html
There are times you might not want to change a CD or floppy disk on your MIDI Player every time it runs out of music. You can connect a computer via a MIDI Interface to the MIDI Player and run Playlist or Jukebox software.
If you can still find the hardware, it is possible to use a pair (meaning 2 sets) of wireless transmitters like the M-Audio MidAir or Shure Wireless PG14, to transmit MIDI and audio data to your MIDI Player from either your home computer or a multi-changer CD player connected to your home stereo system. One transmitter and receiver connects the MIDI data to one channel, and the other pair connects the audio data to the other channel.
CD audio, with its huge wave files, is now being replaced with very, very compressed mp3 audio files. These compressed audio files, along with their corresponding MIDI files, are so small that entire libraries fit on a digital camera card. The data from these libraries also fit on memory cards the size of a fingernail which are used in hand-held Media Players and Smart Phones. To use the controllers below, you will want to convert any audio files you plan to use to mp3 at 192kbps. PianoDisc will convert any music of theirs you have for free.
DKV Browser was written by Kevin Goroway to connect and control a Yamaha Mark IV, and E3 Disklavier, and the DKC-850 upgrade control box. It replaces the many of the functions found on the handheld PRC-100 controller that is normally supplied with a Mark IV Disklavier, the Tablet controller and the virtual PRC . Find it on the internet at: http://dkvbrowser.sourceforge.net/
iPhone, iPad App for controlling a Yamaha Mark IV, E3 Disklavier and the DKC-850 are available.
Yamaha's iPhone Users Guide for iPhone and iPad
How to Connect to Your Disklavier via Yamaha iPhone
Controller App
a step by step blog
entry from Granny Joan's Hitel Lady Blog for Mac enthusiasts
PianoDisc iQ can also be connected to Pianodisc Radio content using the streaming radio app that letís you add your own custom station called ìFStreamî on your apple device. You can also use iTunes/Apple TV
WinAmp is an excellent alternative to iTunes if you are running Windows. It also runs on an Android smart phone. It can control and play streaming PianoDisc radio media to their iQ MIDI Player. http://www.winamp.com